S Huawei Ascend Y100 Review

Indigenous mobile players are in their foray to launch new Android phones that will give users all the functionalities that a renowned player offers; but at a cheaper rate. However, penetrating to the brand conscious customer segment has always been a tough proposition for many native players including Spice. Skepticism on the quality of the materials used in manufacturing the product and the availability and quality of service including repair make such customers reluctant to by the phone from such players, despite their attractive prices.

To grab a major chunk of customers in this segment, the Indian handset maker has now collaborated with international player Huawei and launched a new product Ascend Y100 under a new brand name “S Huawei”. The promises are superior quality product, better service, and better durability. Let’s check how good the product is.

Esthetics

The compact yet stylish look with a small and cute screen makes the handset stand out in the pool. Having dimensions of 106 x 56 x 10.9 mm, the product is considerably light weight and slim. Truly speaking, it is difficult to find such a tiny Android handset in the market these days. Perfectly designed for one hand operation! User friendly illuminated capacitive soft keys with haptic feedback can be used for functions  Back, Settings, and Search. There is a physical Home button. On the left side, there is a volume control key. A 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port are given on the top.

Screen

The 2.8-inch TFT screen with QVGA resolution displays vivid colors and supports autorotation. Its capacitive touchscreen is highly responsive. The touch UI is the standard Android UI. You can swiftly spin the homescreens by swiping left and right. Like any other Android device , you can customize your homescreens.

Power

The device promises unique power management features. When any normal Android phone takes around 20-30 seconds to boot the device, Y100 can be booted in just 5 seconds! It sports a 1050 mAh battery that gives 300 hours of standby time and 300 min of talktime (both on 2G and 3G). In just 2 hours, you can fully charge the device!

OS and Apps

The device runs on Android Gingerbread OS. You can download unlimited apps to suite your requirement from Google Play Store. A very interesting and unique feature of the device is that it allows users to save all applications in memory card. Other Android phones are not offering such convenience to users to optimize the memory usage.

Processor and Memory

The Qualcomm 800 MHz processor is seconded by a 256MB RAM; ROM is 512MB and expansion capacity is 32GB. The Adreno 200 GPU renders smooth graphics. The device gives smooth video playing & 3D games, faster streaming, rich Internet browsing experience, better 3D rendering capability and faster processing of applications.

Multimedia

It comes with a 3.2MP camera, which gives satisfactory pictures. Refer to some of the sample pics and videos given below. You can also record videos on the go, though the video quality is not very superior. It does not have a flash to light up the object, so photos clicked at indoor/poorly lit areas are not so good. But hey folks, there is compensation on offer in form of light settings like day light, incandescent, florescent, and there are image settings as well. The 3x zoom of the handset is excellent.  I would say that the camera passes the litmus test, though  not with distinction. And for music lovers, there is a music player, a loud stereo speaker, a 3.5 mm audio jack to connect your favorite headset, and FM radio. 

Connectivity

The device supports 3G/HSDPA 7.2Mbps and Wi-Fi b/g/n for Internet connectivity. A special 3G data offer is coming with the pack. Users can avail either 1GB data for 3 months from Aircel or 500MB data for 1 month from Airtel. Local file transfer is made possible through Bluetooth v2.1 and MicroUSB 2.0 (HiSpeed). WiFi and USB tethering is possible, which means you can enjoy Internet connectivity on your laptops by connecting it to your Y100. For navigation assistance, it is coming with GPS/AGPS /Compass.

The Verdict

S Huawei brand has not compromised on the quality of this tiny device. The  new international branding strategy is going to win the hearts of many, who are hesitant to go for a product from a native player.